Uttar Pradesh colleges plan to ban jeans, set dress code

Lucknow, June 22 (IANS) Principals of many colleges in Uttar Pradesh are mulling a proposal to ban students from wearing jeans on campus and work out a dress code for them, officials said Monday. “The proposal has been drafted recently under the banner of the Uttar Pradesh Principals Association (UPPA) - a group having members from nearly 400 degree colleges in the state,” UPPA convener Ashok Srivastava told IANS over telephone from Kanpur.

However, he said any final decision would only be taken after consulting students, and their parents and guardians.

Asked the reason for drafting such a proposal, Srivastava said: “We feel that the move would help strengthen discipline and regulation of colleges. Moreover, the step would also check display of ‘indecent clothes’ worn by some of the college students.”

A few days ago, four colleges in Kanpur issued an order, prohibiting girl students from wearing jeans on campus, and claimed the move will check incidents of harassment.

Dayanand Degree College (DDC), Acharya Narendra Dev College (ANDC), Sen Balika College (SBC) and Johari Degree College (JDC) - all affiliated to the Kanpur University - have barred their students from wearing jeans.

Meanwhile, college students are up in the arms against the UPPA for drafting such a proposal.

“They (UPPA members) will in no way be able to implement the proposal in colleges as students, their parents and guardians would definitely oppose it,” Diksha Mathur, a B.Sc student of the Juhari Devi Degree College in Kanpur, told IANS.